Living in North Kansas City, Missouri

About North Kansas City

North Kansas City is its own city, separate from Kansas City, Missouri, despite the similar name. It covers 4.37 square miles of land in Clay County, on the north bank of the Missouri River across from downtown Kansas City, inside the area known as the Northland. The Census Bureau estimated 5,613 residents on July 1, 2025. City Hall is at 2010 Howell Street.

Being a separate city means separate services. North Kansas City has its own water plant, parks department and public library, and contracts its own trash pickup. For the larger city around it, see Kansas City, Missouri.

Tom Staats is a REALTOR® with Keller Williams Realty Partners, licensed in Missouri and Kansas. For a purchase or sale in North Kansas City, start with buying a home, selling your home or contact Tom.

Where it is and getting around

Downtown Kansas City is about 4.2 miles south of City Hall across the Missouri River, by I-29 and I-35. Kansas City International Airport is about 17 miles northwest by Route 9, US 169 and I-29. Drive times are without traffic, from OpenStreetMap routing.

RideKC buses serve the city. As of November 2024, about 60 bus stops inside North Kansas City were served, mainly by routes 201 and 238, according to Kansas City’s open data. A ride costs $2, or $1 at the reduced fare.

Homes and neighborhoods

The Census Bureau counted 2,958 homes in North Kansas City in its 2020-2024 American Community Survey. About 33% are single-family detached houses and 9% are attached houses. Another 30% are in buildings of 2 to 19 units, and 28% are in buildings of 20 or more.

The housing spans a long period. About 20% of homes were built in 1939 or earlier and 13% in the 1940s, while about a third were built in 2000 or later. The median year built is 1972. About a quarter of occupied homes are owner-occupied. For a city this small, these survey figures carry wide margins of error.

Three named areas appear on the City’s own pages:

• Downtown North Kansas City runs along Armour Road and Swift Street, where a City streetscape project replaced street trees, brick sidewalks and streetlights. Its third phase began in July 2022.
• Northgate Village is a redevelopment that replaced 666 single-story garden apartments with single-family homes, rowhomes, apartments and a retail site, under a plan the City adopted in February 2000. The developer, Hunt Midwest, gives its address as 3109 Swift Avenue and counts 213 single-family, patio home and rowhome lots.
• One North is a redevelopment area of about 64 acres at the southeast corner of the I-29/I-35 and Armour Road interchange. The City describes it as a mix of residential, office, retail, restaurant and hotel development.

Homes sit close to commercial and industrial land. Search homes for sale in North Kansas City, or by ZIP code at 64116.

ZIP code 64116 takes in about 94% of the city’s land, and it also reaches into Kansas City and Gladstone. The rest of North Kansas City is in 64117, a ZIP code area that is about 93% in Kansas City (Census Bureau ZIP Code Tabulation Areas, 2020).

Home values

The Census Bureau’s median value of owner-occupied homes in North Kansas City was $197,500 in the 2020-2024 American Community Survey, with a margin of error of about $29,000. For comparison, the median was $242,900 in Kansas City, Missouri and $230,300 statewide.

These are owners’ own estimates gathered over five years, not sale prices. For a figure on one home, see home valuation and how home pricing works.

Property taxes and the earnings tax

Missouri assesses residential property at 19% of its market value (RSMo 137.115). The Clay County Assessor sets new values as of January 1 of each odd-numbered year, so 2025 was a reassessment year and 2027 is the next. The tax is the assessed value divided by 100, times the combined levies of the taxing units at the address.

Clay County’s tax area for the city (area 34) is made up of North Kansas City Schools, the City of North Kansas City and Metropolitan Community College, on top of the state and countywide levies. The County Clerk published these 2025 levies on October 10, 2025:

That sum matches the 6.9021 residential rate Clay County lists for the tax area, which the county labels an estimate. At that rate, each $100,000 of market value is $19,000 of assessed value and about $1,311 a year in tax. Commercial property pays a 1.4400 surtax on top.

The county’s list also shows a 0.3119 Library levy, but the county’s rate for the North Kansas City tax area leaves it out. The city has its own public library, which is funded mainly by a property tax levy. Levies are set each fall, so look up a parcel’s current bill on the Clay County Collector’s site.

To dispute a value, contact the Assessor’s office first, then file the Board of Equalization appeal form with the County Clerk by 5 p.m. on the second Monday in July. Informal meetings are held in April and Board hearings in August. A Board decision can go to the Missouri State Tax Commission within 30 days of the Board’s final action or by September 30, whichever is later.

Kansas City, Missouri’s 1% earnings tax applies to North Kansas City residents only on pay for work done inside Kansas City, Missouri.

School districts

The whole city lies within North Kansas City Schools (District 74), according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2025 boundary files. Which elementary, middle and high school a home is assigned to goes by address, so check the district’s boundary maps for each home you consider.

See North Kansas City Schools, buying a home in the Northland school districts and how school attendance boundaries work.

Utilities

• Water: the city runs its own drinking water plant, drawing groundwater from six wells about 120 feet deep and pumping about 3 million gallons a day on average. The EPA lists it as a community water system owned by local government. Set up a new water account through City Hall at 816-274-6000.
• Sewer: the city maintains its own sewer lines, and Kansas City, Missouri provides final wastewater treatment under an agreement.
• Trash and recycling: GFL became the city’s hauler on December 3, 2024. As of 2025, trash and recycling go out every Tuesday in 65-gallon carts. Yard waste is collected from March 1 to December 31, up to 10 bags or bundles a week, and up to five bulky items on the first Tuesday of each month.
• Electricity: federal EIA data list Evergy as an electric utility in Clay County, and the Missouri PSC lists Evergy Missouri Metro, formerly Kansas City Power & Light. The PSC’s utility locator confirms the provider for an address.
• Natural gas: Spire. Spire Missouri’s tariff lists North Kansas City among the communities served by Spire Missouri West (tariff sheet effective December 23, 2021), and the PSC lists a separate western Missouri customer line.
• Internet: providers change from street to street. The FCC National Broadband Map lists them by address.

Parks and places

• Macken Park, 1002 Clark Ferguson Drive: athletic fields, courts, a soccer field, playgrounds, shelters and trails.
• Dagg Park, 2000 Iron Street: a playground, spray ground and shelters.
• Waggin’ Trail Dog Park, 432 East 32nd Avenue: off-leash areas and agility equipment.
• Memorial Park at 716 East 23rd Avenue, Wheel Park, a trail at Clark Ferguson Drive and Ozark Street, and the Parks and Recreation Center at 1201 Clark Ferguson Drive.
• River Forest Park, about 7.5 acres north of the Hillside Levee and east of I-35, with a natural waterfall. Work on a playground, restroom pavilion, nature trails and a pollinator meadow began in March 2025, with completion planned for early 2026.
• North Kansas City Public Library, 2251 Howell Street, open since October 17, 1936. Cards are free to residents of Clay, Platte and Jackson counties in Missouri and Wyandotte and Johnson counties in Kansas.
• North Kansas City Hospital (NKC Health), 2800 Clay Edwards Drive.

Flood zones

North Kansas City lies on the north bank of the Missouri River, behind the North Kansas City Levee Unit, which FEMA’s flood map shows as an accredited levee. Measured on FEMA’s National Flood Hazard Layer, about two-thirds of the city’s area is mapped as Zone X, an “area with reduced flood risk due to levee”, and about 15% as an area of minimal flood hazard. Roughly one-sixth of the area, including land along the river and some low areas in the north and east of the city, is in high-risk zones (AE and AH).

Reduced risk is not no risk. Search any address on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before you make an offer, and ask your insurer for a flood quote.